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AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, Jan. 27 (UPI) -- A 45-year-old Asian elephant at a Netherlands zoo has become the first of her species in Europe to be outfitted with a contact lens.

Officials with the Artis Zoo in Amsterdam said the elephant, Win Thida, had to undergo surgery and be outfitted with a contact lens after her eye was badly injured during a fight with another elephant, the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph reported Thursday.

"I was called in when the zoo reported that Win Thida's eye was painful and streaming," veterinarian Anne-Marie Verbruggen said. "The main difficulty was her height. Elephants can't lie down for long before their immense weight impairs their breathing, so I used a ladder to get close enough. It wasn't ideal, but it worked. She seemed happier straight away."

Couple suspect robber at drive-through

MADISON, Wis., Jan. 27 (UPI) -- A Wisconsin couple told officers they sped away from a Wendy's drive-through when a man approached their car with what appeared to be a gun.

Madison Police said the 43-year-old man and a 38-year-old woman told them they sped away from the restaurant shortly before 11 p.m. Wednesday and drove directly to a police station about a mile from the Gammon Road restaurant, The (Madison) Capital Times reported Thursday.

"They had pulled up to the ordering board at Wendy's when they saw the front-seat passenger in the car behind them get out and approach their vehicle," police spokesman Joel DeSpain said.

He said the man, described as a black man in his 20s, had a metallic object in his hand they believed to be a gun.

"The woman told her husband to drive away and he did so," DeSpain said. "He believed they might have been robbed if they hadn't departed."

Police said they have not identified any suspects.

Survey: 36 percent in U.S. prefer football

NEW YORK, Jan. 27 (UPI) -- A New York pollster said the gap between football and baseball fandom is widening, with 36 percent of respondents preferring the former to the latter.

Harris Interactive said its online poll of 2,237 adults, conducted Dec. 5-12, found 36 percent of respondents cited football as their favorite sport while 13 percent said it was baseball.

The pollster said last year's poll found 31 percent of participants considered football their favorite, with 17 percent choosing baseball.

Additionally, 13 percent of those polled in this year's survey picked college football as their favorite, with 8 percent picking auto racing and 5 percent each choosing professional basketball, college basketball and hockey.

Harris said no margin of error could be calculated for the survey due to the participants being only those who have previously agreed to fill out the company's online surveys.

Artist wants to bury plane in desert

BORON, Calif., Jan. 27 (UPI) -- A Swiss artist said he is working to obtain the proper permits to allow him to bury a Boeing 727 commercial jetliner in a California desert.

Christoph Buchel, who has applied for a conditional-use permit in Kern County, said he wants to bury the jetliner 38 feet below the surface of the Mojave Desert, near Boron, and connect it to the surface with a tunnel once it has been covered in sand and dirt, the Bakersfield Californian reported Thursday.

"At this point in time, we've received no letters in opposition to it," said Scott Denney, operations division chief for the county Planning Department. "But we have received a lot of inquiries."

Buchel, who the Californian said was out of the country and unavailable for comment, dubbed the project "terminal."

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